‘A boy without a dream is dangerous,’ is an Arab proverb. It implies that a child denied the right to dream of a future will become embittered and potentially attracted to violent causes. Across the world - from the Sudan to the Congo, from Palestine to Afghanistan and beyond - the world is in danger of creating a new generation of ‘dangerous boys’. In the macro headlines of today’s press, there are a few such stories that leak to the surface. A young Palestinian girl poised to study medicine in the West and become a healer, has her dream denied as the Gaza Border summarily closes and stops her taking her final entrance exam in Jordan. In Colombia, a young soldier sees his innocent brother summarily executed so that his troop commander can prove he has a “terrorist” body count this month and can so earn his men weekend liberty passes. In the Congo, a young boy watches his father’s body, a government worker, used as an impromptu road block. The image of the child blind with tears, impotent to help his innocent father while a group of teenage Congo insurgants laugh at him. The boy’s tears are the ashes of the dream of a generation, and the world’s contribution to the next generation of ‘dangerous boys’.The world is governed by the convenience of its wealthiest constituents. Our personal needs and wants, often petty and temporary, take precedent over the real crushing needs of the world’s youth. The UN dallies to make a decision as to send more troops to Congo and the children there suffer during the delay. The UN reticence is based on a growing unwillingness on the part of the world to fight further conflicts. The populations of the UN contributory countries do not want to send more of their own into harms way. A poll today in the UK showed that a full two thirds of the British population want their troops out of the unpopular Afghan and Iraq wars within the year. The Iraq War has to a large part soured the world in intervening in other people’s problems. The unwarranted Iraq War has untold costs in terms of sapping the desire to provide help where help is really needed. However, other areas do have a moral right to claim intervention from the West - Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan and on - but as a result of the Iraq debacle are denied the help they need. The daily food thrown onto the trash heaps as it is one day past its expiration date would feed nations. There was a recent report that said the amount of money spent on alcohol in the UK alone would put an end to poverty in Africa. These are the wars that need fighting. These are the battles that are important for us to win. These wars would pay dividends for now and the future as opposed to racking up debts and a continued cycle of violence.
Our governments have a responsibility. A responsibility to the electorate that they serve, but also to the broader world need. The more that the wealthier nations focus on their immediate needs and wants, the more chance we will continue to breed our ‘dangerous boys’. Many in the world are baffled by the hatred evidenced by extreme Islamic factions against the West. The Western press tells them it is because they envy and despise our freedom. The fact that the resentment emanates from our presence on their soil, our support of one faction unfairly over another, and the age old Israel-Palestineissue is not identified as the cause. This is the anger that you hear voiced in the bazaars and souks of the world. The more we dabble in wars that don’t concern us, and don’t intervene in the battles that matter, the more ‘dangerous boys’ we will produce. The broad international appeal of a symbol that President-elect Obama has generated, is a rekindling of the concepts of fairness and hope. Whether the world will actually change is questionable, but it is the resurgence of a younger generations’ hope that is so critical. Our children need to be able to dream of a future. They need to see they have opportunity. The more we can feed their dreams - the less we have a chance of having to face an armed ‘dangerous boy’ in the future.
By stuart
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